One in sixty eight
by Nicholas Cage's grandma
Summary: Imagine a world, full of people and maybe some Pokemon. Cool right? Yeah, I think so too. Please just try it and read because I have no idea how to write summaries. It's basically this teen named Ray who starts his journey in Kanto. It's got some parts from the game and the show I like to pick and choose what I use. Please read the first chapter. It's only like 5,000 words or so.


Ray sat on his bed, daydreaming about his soon to be future.

The crowd roared as the heat of the final battle of the Pokemon league was coming to a close. "Dragonite use Hydrocannon and knock that bitch to the ground!" Ray screamed in a booming, masculine voice. Dragonite processed this request quickly and planted his feet firmly on the ground to prepare himself for the knockback that always came with the high pressured water of the attack. "Arcanine brace yourself! Use Sunny Day to lessen the blow!" Said Lance nervously. Lance knew that Dragonite was way to strong and cool and well trained to miss any attacks. Arcanine used Sunny Day but the Hydrocannon that was launched seemed to be just as strong if not stronger than normal. Lance was stunned as his final pokemon hit the floor of the stadium and the crowd fell silent. "But how did your Dragonite's Hydrocannon not lose any power from that Sunny Day lance said squinting at ray through the now bright sun. Coolly, Ray dawned a pair of black, jagged edged sunglasses and said "Isn't it so obvio…"

Suddenly ray was shaken from his daydream by his Mom who was now standing at his door holding a black pan with a pair of oven mitts. "Ray sweetie, I made chocolate chip cookies! Do you want some?" "God don't you give anyone any privacy! This is why dad left! " Ray snapped back full of teenage angst. "Get out of my rOOm!" ray yelled, his voice cracking into a really high pitch in the middle of his sentence. "Ok dear! Whatever you say." she said smiling as she slowly shut the door. "Wait, leave the cookies though." His mother squeaked back into his room and set the tray of cookies on an empty part of his mostly cluttered desk. She began to walk back out of his room and turned at the last moment turned and warned him, "be careful dear. That tray is very hot." Ray quipped back "Your face is hot!" His mom just stared at him with a blank expression as she watched her son realize what he had just said to "insult" her. "Do you need anything else?" she said after she felt that he was embarrassed enough to no longer be a total dick. "No." he said, trying to avoid eye contact, but still too proud and stupid to take back his insult.

Ray walked over to the cookies trying to repress that awkward moment with his mom by indulging in the chocolaty goodness that is homemade cookies. Ray knew why his mom took these cookies up to his room instead of making him come down and get them himself. It was his last day before he went off onto his Pokemon adventure. Even though Ray would never admit it to anyone, he would definitely miss her more than anyone in his town. Ray lived in a decent sized town that had an old gym that he was never able to go into because the leader never took on apprentices, unlike every other gym in Kanto, but As far as Ray was concerned, this was a great place to grow up to be a Pokemon trainer. Every time a league hopeful would try his luck with the Elite Four, Ray would be there on the road with him or her asking as many questions as he could on the short road to the policeman who checked for badges. He learned a lot from the few dozen trainers who waltzed up to that first gate. He even got a few to take a couple hours out of their day to show him what their Pokemon could do and what the best ways to train them are. Of course most of it went in one ear and out the other because Ray is not the most focused or disciplined of children, but a lot of things did stick, and he felt that what he learned from them was as good as any gym leader since, you know, they beat all of them.

Ray was still in his room eating another cookie now laying on his bed listening to the radio in his room. Singing sarcastically to Blink 182 "Surprises let me know she cares." Ray burst out laughing. "That fucking part always gets me!" Ray said with a huge shit eating grin on his face. After the song ended ray popped back up, grabbed another cookie, and sat down at his PC. He jumped on to a website called Chatterspunk. It's an instant messaging service for Pokemon trainers who want to discuss Pokemon, strategies, casserole recipes, and honestly pretty much anything else. Technically, most of all the "trainers" have never even owned a Pokemon because all of the actual trainers are out on the road… You know… Training. The biggest reason that Chatterspunk is even used is because the account comes with the Trainer Card all trainers get after they pass elementary school and check off the box that says "if you wish to become a trainer later in life, please turn this card in to your teacher with a check mark in this box." Ray spent the rest of his night (and his cookies) bragging to all of his internet friends that he is going to get his starter from professor oak and start his training tomorrow. At 2:30 A.M. He finally decided it was probably time to go to bed.

Morning of August 22nd.

Ray's alarm bursts to life as the day starts.

8:00 A.M.: "Uhhhh five more minutes" Slaps snooze button

8:15 A.M.: "I swear I'm getting up next time." Slaps snooze button

8:30 A.M.: "Never mind, I lied." Slaps snooze button

8:45 A.M.: "Why did I even set an alarm clock?" Slaps snooze button.

9:00 A.M.: "I'll catch the next bus." Slaps snooze button and alarm falls on the floor and breaks

10:47 A.M.: "What happened here…? Oh shit!" Shakes computer mouse. See's time. Freaks out.

Ray quickly throws on whatever clothes he sees and flings his backpack over his shoulder and runs down the stairs to grab something that he can eat while on the move. He's going to have to book it to make it in any reasonable amount of time. He grabs a bagel that looks like it was toasted an hour ago that Ray assumes was probably his and runs out the door shouting "Bye mom! See you whenever!" as he runs down the street his mom stood on the porch and shouted "Wait!" he stopped in his tracks about 30 feet away from his mom and shouted "Quick! What? I'm already late!" she tossed a silvery object at him and he instinctually caught it. It was a silver link watch "It's a good watch! Your father wanted you to have it when you first left for your journey!" Ray looked at it and said under his breath "thanks dad." Then immediately shouted "Is that it? No money?" he said with a provocative tone. "Just go." She said with annoyance in her breath. He took off down the street trying to fasten the watch with his hands while holding his bagel in his mouth.

He was a little bit into route one when he finally fastened his watch tightly and held his arms up to the sky and shouted "YES!" at the top of his lungs with his bagel in his left hand and his new watch finally fastened on his right. He was so excited to finally have conquered the watch he forgot that the express route to pallet had several very large ledges. He was still looking up when the ground suddenly stopped appearing under his feet. He miss stepped and went head first, tumbling down the 30 foot steep ledge. After his second forced somersault, he hit his left hand on a rock and dislodged his bagel. Ray realized this, looked and screamed "NO! NOT THE BAGEL!" and continued tumbling a few times before he came to a full stop at the next beginning of the road. He saw the bagel laying there, barely dirty sitting on a rock.

He took a minute to regain his senses, but when he looked back he saw a sad, hungry looking Growlithe trying to approach his bagel. Ray jumped out of his position on the ground and snatched the bagel as the Growlithe was going in for a bite and said "No! My bagel! I need this bagel." The Growlithe looked at him sadly for a second then just turned around to go back to the woods that bordered the edge of the road walking slowly and somberly. Ray looked at him for a second and said "Alright come back, you can have half. It's not even a good bagel anyway." Ray remarked sounding a twinge bitter at his own pity for the dog. The Growlithe turned around happily and started jumping all around and yipping. Tearing the bagel in half, Ray said "Oh I thought you were all sad and hungry. What's all this?" The Growlithe just looked up at him happily with his tongue out, tail wagging. Ray looked down at him and said "I don't have time for this." Ray tossed the half bagel and the Growlithe caught it with his teeth and Ray took off down the road. Growlithe saw this and took off after him. Ray slid down the next cliff with a bit more grace and looked up the ledge thinking proudly to himself "that's how it's done, fuck you ledge!" Then suddenly off the top of the ledge flew a very vibrant looking Growlithe with a half bagel in his mouth.

Ray cursed under his breath and ran to catch the airborne canine with the round breakfast food in his mouth. Ray ran and dove back first and grabbed Growlithe whose tail was wagging all the while. Ray, with the wind knocked out of him and a forty pound dog siting on his chest. With an expectant gaze Ray shouted "What do you want! The other half? I already ate it!" the Growlithe just sat on him making no movement. Ray eventually just picked him up and sat him down next to him and started and started off again, only this time, Growlithe was right next to him. Ray was too tired and annoyed to comment about it.

Once he came to the next drop he saw Growlithe preparing to jump and he screamed "No!" The Growlithe stopped in its tracks. Ray looked at him surprised and said "Sit!" And Growlithe sat. Ray looked at the bagel toting dog and told it "Come here boy!" Growlithe got up and ran to ray and jumped into his arms. Ray said "okay, this will work." Ray slid down the ledge with not much trouble with Growlithe in tote. Once down he sat Growlithe down, Ray started bolting to the next ledge which luckily had two sets of stairs on it. He looked at his watch going down the stairs and thought to himself "Shit it's already been fifteen minutes! It's ok to be fashionably late right? I mean to be early is to be late and to be late is to be on time. Wait that doesn't sound right. Alright focus, you've got one more ledge to slide down after this." Once he and Growlithe made it to the final ledge he said "Growlithe! Come here" and just like last time he jumped right into his arms. "I could get used to someone following my every command." Growlithe yipped at the idea of him going along with Ray with the bagel still in his mouth. Ray looked at him and said "Oh you're a ventriloquist too? How would you even bark with that bagel in your mouth?"

By the time they had made the entrance to pallet it was 11:07 Ray knew he had to blow past that stupid tall grass to get his starter. Ray sprinted past several Rattatas and Pidgeys that wanted to battle but he thought to himself he's gone this far, he's not going to stop now. He saw the Lab at the end of the town and ran down there and barged through the doors just as Professor Oak was holding two Pokedexes in front of the two kids about his age. Ray said between breaths "Sorry… I'm… Late…" Just then, Growlithe walked in, lied down in a relatively empty part lab, and started eating his bagel from twenty minutes ago. Professor Oak just looked at Ray and asked him in a concerned tone "What happened to you son? It looks like you were attacked by a group of Pokemon." "Well *Huff* funny story actually *puff*, there was this really cool nickel *Wheeze* at the bottom of that first ledge on Route One *Cough* and I wanted to get a better look at it *Cough*… Weird thing was though. *Wheeze* It wasn't a nickel after all." The whole lab just looked at Ray like was a total psycho. Ray just looked at them and said "What *Huff* I thought it was funny *Puff*" Professor Oak slowly began to say "I see… Well anyway, please join us. You're not too late." Ray walked over to the lineup with his hands on his hips still trying to catch his breath. "As I was saying, you are about to embark on your first Pokemon adventure, and as trainers, you must know about what your facing before you face it." Oak continued. "This is a Pokedex. It catalogs, records, collects, interprets, and regurgitates data from all people who own and use it. It is a Pokemon trainer's best friend when it comes to understanding the physical science behind Pokemon. The uses for this miraculous device are limitless, ranging from colloquial stories and stigmas behind certain Pokemon to being able give you the naturally occurring move list and anatomy of the Pokemon. It is can also be used to identify you and your Pokemon. Once you catch a Pokemon, its pokeball's digital serial number is recorded and saved to your Pokedex, so if two people claim to have caught the same Pokemon, it is easy enough to scan it with your Pokedexes and end the dispute. Moreover, a Pokedex as you all know is the only way to enter tournaments recognized by the Pokemon League." Professor Oak looked at the three teens, seeing that they were becoming bored decided to skip the rest of the technicalities since it is required to know all of this to even end up at this point. "Now enough with the formalities. Are there any questions?" Professor Oak asked. Seeing the blank expression on their faces, he replied "Good. Now here are your Pokedexes." Oak ripped off the tape with the name of who the Pokedex should belong to and gave them out. Ray flipped his open and saw his registered Pokemon League profile.

This Pokedex belongs to the Trainer that goes by Ray

Date of Birth: 5/28/1999 photo:

Sex: Male

Eye Color: Brown

Height: 5' 8

Address: 549 Viridian Ct, Viridian City, Kanto 23454

Badges: 0 Organ Donor: Y

Ray saw this and felt proud to be an 'official' Pokemon trainer now. Oak was pleased as the kids flipped through the first pages of the Pokedex than look back up at him with excited smiles that only happen when someone is truly and honestly hopeful for the future. "Now that you all have become acquainted with your new Pokedexes, it is time for you three to decide how to pick which starters you get, I have work to get back to." All three teens looked at the three pokeballs sitting dormant on the silver table in front of them for a second and the girl and boy on the right both said "Dibs on Charmander!" Ray snapped out of his trance and began to think "Wait no! I want him too!" he exclaimed. The boy told him "Dibs is dibs, we're going to do rock paper scissors to see who gets Charmander, but you're out of it." The girl looked like she felt a bit bad, but ultimately she said "Yeah I agree with him, but I think it's only fair that he gets to choose what Pokemon he gets before we finish rock paper scissors." The boy confidently said "I'm not going to lose so go ahead." Ray said grumpily accepting his fate. "Ok. I choose Squirtle I guess. I didn't even care that much." The rock paper scissors game commenced and the girl said "We're going to only do one throw ok?" The boy didn't make any sort of acknowledgement except for putting his hands out in the position. They both began "Rock! Paper! Scissors! Shoot!" The boy confidently threw rock, while the girl threw paper. The boy indignantly exclaimed "I always do two out of three!" as he set up to go another round. The girl sighed and said "fine." The both started again "Rock! Paper! Scissors! Shoot!" The boy threw rock again and the girl threw paper again. The boy yelled "You cheated! Everyone falls for that one! It at least should have been a tie!" the girl yelled back "How the hell do you cheat at rock paper scissors? You lost, deal with it." The boy crossed his arms and huffed loudly. He looked to the table saw the pokeball in front of the etching marked 'Bulbasaur' and marched out the door angrily. Ray saw this and started talking to the girl. "Wow that guy is a total dick." Ray remarked. "Yeah, his name is Austin, but he is right you know." The girl said flatly. Ray replied "You know him? And what do you mean he's right?" The girl looked back at him as she picked up Charmander's pokeball "No, but I saw his name on his trainer profile, and as for the cheating part, I may or may not be a little psychic." She remarked while releasing Charmander. Ray laughed and said "So even if I was a part of that, I wouldn't have been able to do anything. You wanted me to have second pick so he would pick last." The girl smiled while kneeling down to pet her new Pokemon "That's pretty much the size of it." Ray went to pick up his pokeball that had Squirtle.

"So what is your name?" the girl asked Ray. "Aren't you psychic? Can't you just go through my head and find my name?" the girl replied "No it doesn't work like that. The only ability I really have is being able to read the current thought of a person, and even then some people think more loudly than others. Austin thinks like a yell, while others like Professor Oak think very softly and I can only really interpret it if I am only concentrating really hard." "What about me?" Ray asked excitedly. "Eh, you're not too special not overly loud or soft, pretty normal." "I resent that" Ray said dejectedly. Ray perked back up and said "Alright I'm going to test out if you're telling the truth. I'm going to just think about my name, and if you can pick it up, I'll know you're telling the truth." Ray began to focus on his own name, chanting with his inner monologue 'Ray, Ray, Ray.' The girl looked up at him triumphantly and said "Hello Ray, my name is Emma. It was nice meeting you." Ray looked at her amazed and shouted "You're blowing my freakin' mind right now, I hope you know that." The girl laughed and said "It really was nice meeting you, but I really should be hitting the road by now." "No worries, I better meet Squirtle soon anyway." Ray replied. "I hope I see you again Ray, promise we'll have a battle next time. Okay?" Emma said. "Okay, but you better not cheat or else." Ray replied holding up his fists trying to be threatening. Emma laughed and said "No promises, bye!" "See ya!" and with that Emma left.

Just then, Growlithe came up to ray looking satisfied and his mouth covered in toasted bagel crumbs. "Don't you look happy?" Ray in the same condescending voice that a parent says to their baby when they've done something silly. Growlithe just sat at his feet, panting and wagging his tail. Ray shrunk down the pokeball and stuck it to his belt and went to find Professor Oak. Professor oak was studying a chart with a Vileplume that was cut in order to show the insides on the right side and the same type of picture with a Bellosom on the right. There was a chalkboard next to the chart with a lot of sciencey stuff that Ray would probably ever understand. Ray approached him and said "Hey doc, do you have any spare pokeball's? I picked up this guy on the way and he won't piss off, so I might as well catch him." Growlithe barked at the mention of him and continued wagging his tail and panting. Oak was shaken out of his deep thought and looked over at Ray. "Oh I saw him come in with you, I assumed that he was your family pet." Ray replied to him "Nope, I met him after my fight with the ground. I saw him walking out all sad and depressed so I gave him half a bagel and now he's so intent on following me. He's borderline suicidal." Ray said remembering that quick flight of the Growlithe. "Yes of course, I can give you a Pokeball, but I want to speak to you in private." Ray looked around and said "What do you mean? We're the only ones here." Oak pointed at Growlithe and said "He's here." Ray squinted at the Professor like he was a maniac and said "He's a dog, he doesn't know what's going on." Oak sighed and said "Not quite. Dogs for the most part, like you said, don't know what's going on, but Growlithe here is a Pokemon. For the most part, Pokemon pick up any language that is spoken in a given area. So if Growlithe here grew up anywhere near humans, which most Pokemon do now a days, he fully understands English. It may seem that he doesn't, but Growlithes birthed in the wild tend to be very one tracked and tend to ignore the tedious conversations that most other humans and Pokemon engage in. Here let me show you, throw out your starter." Ash released Squirtle and Squirtle proudly announced his name and looked up at his new trainer and seemed a little bit disappointed. Professor Oak looked at Squirtle and said "Squirtle, can you understand me?" Squirtle nodded. "Squirtle do you like Pickles?" Squirtle shook its head. Ray said "Okay, I guess you proved your point." Ray returned Squirtle and turned to Growlithe "Growlithe go wait near the exit. Okay?" Growlithe barked and took off out of the room.

Oak shut the door and started talking seriously. "By giving that Growlithe that bagel, you've taken on a big responsibility." Ray looked at him wide eyed and said "The fuck are you talking about? I gave a bagel to a wild animal, it's not like I adopted a kid!" Oak looked at him patiently and explained "Growlithes grow up in the wild two ways, they either live in huge packs of Growlithes, or are raised singularly by an Arcanine." Ray looked at him and said "What's that suppose to mean?" Oak continued "It means that he was probably being raised by an Arcanine since it's mostly impossible to take down a pack of Growlithes." Ray still looked at him and said "What does taking down a pack of Growlithes have to do with…" Ray suddenly came to the realization Professor Oak was trying to explain. Ray started again "Ok so he's an orphan, what does that mean for me?" Oak began to speak again "It means he's imprinted on to you. It could be that he's been scrounging by for a few days, it could have been for a few weeks, but the point is, he would have died eventually. You actively giving him that bagel made his instincts for survival kick in. He imprinted on you because if he hadn't he would have died. The thing is about Growlithes imprinting on their trainers is that there is a phenomenon known simply as separation syndrome." Ray asked still unsure of how to process this "Separation syndrome?" Oak continued "Yes, it happens when Growlithe no longer knows how to find its parent for more than a few days to a few weeks. The symptoms include depression and anxiety and ultimately lead to the Growlithes untimely death." Rays eyes grew even wider than they did before "DEATH? What the actual fuck! That's ridiculous!" Oak started on again "Yes I agree, but there are three known ways of stopping the issue. One is that the imprinted parent sees them again, but that only resets the clock. The next way is for the Growlithe to evolve into an Arcanine. We assume it is because the Growlithe learns independence when it evolves. The final way is for the owner to die. Not much is known about why this happens, but we have seen Growlithes in the final stages of separation syndrome completely recover almost spontaneously, but they always begin the grieving process for Pokemon. Every time this happens, we receive a report that the owner of the Growlithe has died and the Pokemon will be either released back to their original habitat or given to the Pokemon workforce if they don't want to return to the wild. It is even stranger considering Growlithes that don't imprint on their trainers don't seem to know when their trainer dies." Ray replied "Wait a second, if you have Growlithes that imprint on their trainers and die often enough for you to have all of the symptoms catalogued and named, why do trainers let their Pokemon die? That's just retarded and cruel." Oak looked a bit somber and said. "Well the thing is, many trainers have no idea this is even a thing. Most people find a sad looking Growlithe like you did, give it some food, and create a bond for life. Some of them catch the Growlithe after it stuck around, but have six Pokemon in their party so they are sent directly here. If they don't call and ask us for him before the Growlithe dies, we can't tell them the issues with separation syndrome. Others send them so they can train other Pokemon and we don't know they've imprinted yet so we don't warn them. A few of the cases, separation syndrome happened because the Arcanine that was parenting it was caught and not poached. An ambitious trainer looking for a good Pokemon would catch this Pokemon and send it to us trying to learn why it's acting so sick once the symptoms start. It's not overly common because Growlithes raised by Arcanines make up for about five percent of the Growlithe population and the amount of poachers able and willing to hunt down Arcanines are few and far between, so the actual occurrence of human imprinting is a pretty rare occurrence." Ray was still shocked by the concept of separation syndrome but wanted to ask one more question before he left. "Okay, I think I've got it. No dropping the kid off at daycare while daddy works, okay, but I have a question. Why did you want Growlithe to leave?" Oak replied simply "Bringing it up would have saddened Growlithe, I don't like to see sad Pokemon." Ray replied "Fair enough." and followed oak to a basket of pokeballs. Oak said "You know when you get your first Pokemon, you can take five free pokeballs. People just seem to be so excited they leave without even a thank you." Oak said chuckling. Ray grabbed five pokeballs and put four in a pocket of his backpack and called very loudly "GROWLITHE! COME HERE BOY!" Just then Growlithe came barreling down the lab, knocking over an intern carrying a notebook filled with Pokemon food recipes. Growlithe barreled into the room and jumped into Ray's arms causing him to exhale with a loud 'oof'. Ray spoke to him "Miss me buddy? I was gone for like eight minutes." Growlithe responded by licking him in the face. Ray set him down and said "Alright fuzz ball, this is a pokeball." Ray said commandingly "I don't know if you know what this does, but this will legally bind you and me so I'm going to hit you with this and you won't struggle. Okay?" Oak looked at Ray a bit curiously and thought to himself "I've seen mean trainers, clueless trainers, nice trainers, and stupid trainers, but I've never seen someone treat their Pokemon quite like he does. It will be interesting to see how he'll turn out."

Ray sauntered out to take a look around pallet before he took off back up that first route full of memories from earlier that day. It was already 12:38 by the time Ray finished looking around Pallet and Ray was getting hungry. Ray took out a thermos filled with water and took out a bag of assorted nuts and a bit of dried meat. He also took out two bowls for his Pokemon. He didn't expect to have two Pokemon so soon so he knew he'd have to restock at the Pokemart soon. He filled the bowl with pokemon food and filled them up to a decent height. He released his Pokemon and said "Lunch time, I made it fresh from the bag." The two Pokemon walked up to the bowl and started chowing down on their food. After about five minutes, everyone had finished eating. There was still some food left in the bowl, so Ray scooped it back in to his bag and loaded everything up. He said to them "Rest up, I bet your going to be fighting off more than a few Rattatas today." Squirtle nodded and Growlithe yipped in excitement. Ray returned them both and headed off to the edge of the town. He looked at the tall grass, took a deep breath, and took his first step on route one. The road that would lead to the Indigo Plateau… and was immediately bit by a Rattata.

 **Author's Note I guess?:**

I Really didn't want to make an author's note because I think they are really stupid and take you out of the story between chapters, but I wanted to make one just to talk to the two people who are going to read this. I've never actually written a fanfiction but I have read a ton. I wanted to make this because I noticed that no characters have any sort of flaws. Every fanfiction I read it's like the main character is some sort of omnipotent god who everyone around him thinks he is awesome. I made this just so I could add a character who is just a little bit real and is an ass hole who is below average intelligence and kind of lazy. I don't know, maybe it will suck and everyone only likes superman characters, but hey it's kind of fun to write. You should expect the next chapter within a few days if my computer doesn't shit all over itself again. Well I hope you enjoyed it somewhat, I personally like the next chapter better, it has less exposition. Sort of heavy on it in the beginning but gets better towards the end.


End file.
